No. 3 St. Peter's Prep football team of Jersey City falls to No. 1 St. Joseph of Montvale, 56-28

Follow @JJournalSportsSt. Peter’s Prep will have to wait at least one more year before it breaks its losing streak to St. Joseph (Montvale), which dropped the Marauders 56-28 tonight at Caven Point.

The Marauders (6-1) came in ranked as the No. 3 team in the Star-Ledger Top 20, while St. Joseph (5-0) entered the game not only entered as the state’s No. 1 team, but also ranked No. 12 in the nation by USA Today.

Prep, which hasn’t beaten the Green Knights since 2009, gained the upper hand early in the matchup, going ahead 7-0 with a 70-yard touchdown run by Rutgers commit Jonathan Hilliman, who ran for 147 yards and three touchdowns. The run was a breath of fresh air after some wind was taken out of the Marauders' sails when a punt return by Corey Caddle was nullified due to a block-in-the-back penalty.

But that lead would only last a few minutes before St. Joseph responded with a scoring drive of its own. The Green Knights evened the score at 7-7 when senior Mark Fossati snatched a two-yard pass from classmate Spencer Aukamp in traffic.

Fossati’s name would resonate again in the first quarter after he blocked a punt deep in Prep territory. Senior running back Sherman Alston, who wound up with 182 yards on the ground, cashed in on the good fortune, scoring the first of his three touchdowns to make it 14-7 with 3:50 left in the quarter.

Big plays would silence the Marauders crowd on the Green Knights’ next scoring drive as senior wideout Quai Jefferson — a UMass commit — and Alston, who has committed to Boston College, broke runs of over 15 yards, giving Aukamp an opportunity to hit his second touchdown pass of the game.

With his team down 21-7, Prep junior Minkah Fitzpatrick returned the ensuing kickoff 69 yards to the St. Joseph 25-yard line. Fitzpatrick would then catch a pass on a third-and-8, leading to a two-yard touchdown sweep for Hilliman that cut the deficit to 21-14 in the second quarter.

The Green Knights would not let the Marauders keep the momentum for long though, scoring on the very next drive. It was another possession kept alive on a third and long, as Alston hauled in a 12-yard pass.

The junior would end that drive, as well as the next Green Knights possession with a short touchdown run, pushing the score to 28-14. Fossati, who caught three touchdown passes in the game, added another score to make it a 35-14 game going into half.

The Green Knights would keep the pressure on as Aukamp tacked on another two touchdown passes, giving him five for the game, and Alston claimed another rushing score in the second half on the way to victory.

Junior quarterback Brandon Wimbush was contained for most of the game, but was able to break 35-yard run in third quarter. That big gain would be the catalyst to a drive that concluded in Hilliman’s third and final score of the night.

Prep’s crowd gained a little bit of life when junior Dean Perez stripped Alston in the backfield later in the third quarter, but the Marauders stalled after that play, giving the ball back on downs after four plays.

The final score of the night came with less than five minutes left as Kolton Huber brought in a 10-yard pass from Wimbush.